Suntop Stickers     Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:33 Data writes: Your school going kid is a fan of the SunTop drink. Each drink packet consists of a SunTop sticker which should be peeled off from the packet and collected. Say, that in all there are 52 unique SunTop stickers and each SunTop drink packet costs 1 Saudi Riyal. Give an estimate of the total money that you would have to spend on your kid to collect all the 52 unique SunTop stickers. I.e Estimate the number of SunTop drinks you have to buy inorder to get all the 52 unique SunTop stickers. Note: You get exactly one SunTop sticker per Suntop drink packet. You also cannot exchange stickers with other kids. The buying process is random. I.e. you have to take whatever SunTop packet the store owner gives you. You donot have the choice to pick the drink on your own. read comments(12) / write comment / 565 views

Sat-nav systems under growing threat from 'jammers'     Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:26 Data writes: Technology that depends on satellite-navigation signals is increasingly threatened by attack from widely available equipment, experts say. While "jamming" sat-nav equipment with noise signals is on the rise, more sophisticated methods allow hackers even to program what receivers display. News Editor Note: The impacts are significant. read comments(6) / write comment / 448 views

Jaywalking     Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:50 Data writes: You have been caught jaywalking. The officer gives you two options- one day in prison or a $100 fine. You, being the smart guy asks for a third option. The officer being a math buff thinks for a while,goes back into his vehicle and picks a complete set of chess pieces (16 white and 16 black) and two empty boxes. He asks you to place the chess pieces in the two boxes, the only constraint is that all the pieces should be placed. He then asks you to close your eyes and the officer changes the order of the box(not its contents) randomly. Now, again with your eyes closed you are asked to pick a piece from one of the two boxes. - If it is a white piece that you picked, you are free to go without any fine - If it is a black piece that you picked, you are at the officer's mercy. What is your best strategy in placing the chess pieces in the empty boxes so that you have the highest probability of picking a white piece? read comments(15) / write comment / 943 views

Drone wars     Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:23 Data writes: The year is 2030 and asymmetric warfare has gained popularity. Drones( predators, reapers, hawks, eagles, owls and what not...) decide the course of victory. The enemy is manufacturing drones and you being an intel. officer of your country has been asked to estimate the number of enemy drones manufactured. A number of enemy drones were shot down and it was found that its engine had a unique serial ordering of serial numbers  to aid manufacturing and to keep track of other inventory. I.e the problem can be seen as - having shot down  drones numbered between 1 and N, where N is the total number of manufactured drones. The following drones numbered between 1 and N are shot down: 221    90    173    30    234 217    141    286    266    148 126    66    259    25    174 24    95    73    239    205 Give an estimate of the total number of drones, i.e. total enemy drone capability, same as estimating N. You can assume that all drones are shot down at uniformly random, so the serial numbers provided are uniformly random. read comments(19) / write comment / 1105 views

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